


i don't want to be alone

by procellous



Series: tumblr prompt fics [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Genre: M/M, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:14:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25601920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procellous/pseuds/procellous
Summary: Robb finds Theon at the Dreadfort
Relationships: Theon Greyjoy/Robb Stark
Series: tumblr prompt fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1889671
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	i don't want to be alone

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous requested: throbb, I don't want to be alone

The dungeons were dark and cold. Water dripped from the low stone ceiling to the dirt floor, filling the dungeons with mud puddles and the constant plink of the droplets. Robb’s torch flickered in the drafty air.

The bastard had said that Theon was down here. Robb had killed him afterwards, struck his head from his shoulders with a single furious swing of his sword, and now he wondered if the man had lied. The dungeons seemed empty. Still, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t look everywhere, if he didn’t make sure.

The cell was in the very deepest part of the dungeons, where rats scurried without fear and the light of his torch didn’t dare go far. There was nothing on the other side of the bars but a lone body, sprawled out limply in the mud.

Robb pushed the door open, noting that it wasn’t even locked, and crossed the small cell. The body didn’t so much as twitch.

He drove the end of the torch into the soft dirt. The prisoner was an emaciated old man, with white hair and missing fingers, wearing rags and a layer of mud. He was bleeding sluggishly from a gash in his stomach.

No—not an old man. Robb frowned, brows knitting in confusion.

“Theon?” he ventured. “Is that you?”

Theon—it was Theon, it had to be—flinched, very slightly.

“Ramsay is dead,” Robb told him. “I executed him for treason.”

Theon didn’t react.

Robb reached out with one trembling hand, resting it lightly on Theon’s chest. “I’m going to take you to the maester. This needs stitches.”

Theon shook his head. “It’s too late,” he whispered. “I’m dreaming again, aren’t I?”

“Dreaming?”

Theon’s head lolled, and his eyes cracked open, fixing on Robb with effort. “I dream about you all the time. This is nice. Please don’t leave, I don’t want to be alone.”

Robb pulled Theon’s upper body into his lap. “You’re not dreaming. I’m really here, you’re safe now.”

“You always say that.” Theon smiled, revealing missing and broken teeth. “If you are. If you are real.” There was blood coming up between Theon’s lips, flecked with black, and Robb told himself that it was that a broken tooth was cutting inside his mouth. It wasn’t, though. “Please. Give me back to the ocean. Don’t bury me here. I want to be with my mother.”

“I promise,” Robb said, blinking away tears. “But you’re not going to die. I forbid it. Come on, I’m taking you to the maester.”

“Please,” Theon whispered, his eyes slipping closed. “Just stay with me.”

“You have to stay with me too, Theon,” Robb begged, “stay with me, don’t die, not yet, not when I just got you back, I can’t lose you, please—”

Theon clutched weakly at his tunic. A tear slipped down his cheek, leaving a streak in the dirt. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

“No,” Robb said, like the whole scene would turn out to be some dream that could turn to mist with enough flat denial. “No no no, Theon, _please_.”

“I,” Theon whispered, a hoarse sound. “I’ve always loved you, you know? Since I met you.”

Robb sobbed, a wretched noise that consumed his entire body. “I love you too.”

“It hurts…” Theon’s voice was barely more than a breath, curling up in Robb’s arms.

Robb brushed Theon’s mud-coated hair away and kissed his temple. “I know, love, I know. I’m here, everything’s going to be alright. I promise.”

Theon’s breathing grew shallower and shallower, his heartbeat fading away under Robb’s hand, until he stilled entirely.

Robb wasn’t sure whether the sound that tore out of him was a scream or a sob. He clutched Theon to him, the blood on his hands smearing across Theon’s skin.

He’d keep his promise; he’d take Theon’s body to the ocean, see him buried as a prince of the Iron Islands, but for now, he couldn’t bear to let him go.


End file.
